Accused wife killer goes on trial

Tuesday

Mar 6, 2018 at 6:08 PMMar 6, 2018 at 6:08 PM

Almost four years to the day after authorities discovered his slain wife, Philip Jude Moran, 52, appeared in court Tuesday for the first day of his trial.

PANAMA CITY — A house in disarray — pill bottles and live ammo scattered throughout with a trash-covered blood trail leading to a body on the back porch — was an indication of either an attempted murder cover-up or symptoms of temporary insanity, attorneys argued before a jury Tuesday.

Almost four years to the day after authorities discovered his slain wife, Philip Jude Moran, 52, appeared in court for the first day of testimony at his trial. Prosecutors opened their case Tuesday by telling jurors that on March 7, 2014, Moran shot 50-year-old Melissa Moran in the head at their Southport home and then attempted to cover up the slaying. However, Philip Moran’s defense attorney said that the state of Moran’s home and his actions actually show a man suffering from mental illness.

Moran faces life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder with a firearm.

Jurors saw pictures Tuesday of Melissa Moran propped against the back door of their home with blood smeared on the door’s white paint. A golden retriever, her favorite pet, lay stabbed to death beside her. Melissa Moran died from what prosecutor Bob Sombathy described as a “devastating gunshot wound” to the right side of her forehead.

“The barrel of this rifle was no more than one to two feet away from her face,” Sombathy told the jury. “… There were other wounds, and they were wounds all up and down her thigh and legs. … She was dead when those wounds occurred and they were consistent with being dragged around on the floor.”

As Sombathy walked the jury backward along a blood trail from Melissa Moran’s body to the couple’s bedroom, he pointed out live ammo. In mounds of trash, Sombathy highlighted blood-soaked rags and a pair of blood-stained sneakers thrown in the trash to further his case that Philip Moran tried to hide evidence of the crime.

“It wasn’t a good job, but it definitely was an effort to cover up the crime scene,” Sombathy said.

However, defense attorney Lisa Anderson told jurors that the prosecution would leave an incomplete picture. She argued that the disarray of the house and Philip Moran’s erratic behavior demonstrate mental illness rather than a cover-up attempt.

“There was absolutely mental illness going on in this house,” Anderson told jurors. “Family members were concerned. They were trying to communicate with Philip but he was unable to communicate.”

Anderson also set the stage to mount a defense that someone else had a motive in the killing and that authorities do not have the actual murder weapon.

One of the first witnesses called to the stand by prosecutors was former Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen. He had arrived on the scene after a deputy discovered Melissa Moran’s body on the back porch and heard a man walking around inside the home and shouting. Once Philip Moran was out of the house, McKeithen said Moran began making strange statements and was screaming in “excrutiating pain” that he couldn’t walk.

“I’ve seen people under the influence of drugs. I’ve seen mentally disturbed people,” McKeithen told the jury. “The only way I could describe this is ‘bizarre.’ It was just different.”

Moran continued to make statements about being sought by intelligence agencies as he was taken into custody. At one point, he claimed he had taken on the attributes of a dog and could smell the skin of the arresting officers, deputies told the jury.

Bonnie Miller, Melissa Moran’s cousin, told jurors that she had known the couple most of her life and they never argued in front of her. She said she would regularly run errands for them because of their reclusive nature. The Morans were messy people, Miller said, and her cousin called her about once or twice a week for at least four years before the killing to clean their house.